Welcome…

…to the fourth edition of Intertraffic World – the successful partnership between the publisher of Traffic Technology International and the organiser of the Intertraffic events

   Cooperation and collaboration are, I am sure you’ll agree, crucial at all levels in our industry – from the ground right up to the most senior governmental echelons. In a way, you’re holding an example of what can be achieved when the leading exhibition organiser in the traffic management sector, Amsterdam RAI, cooperates and collaborates with the leading magazine publisher, UKIP Media & Events – the creators of Traffic Technology International, tolltrans and Vision Zero International. And in this 2013 edition of Intertraffic World, you will read how participants involved in Infrastructure, Traffic Management, Safety and Parking are coming together as well as how the boundaries between each are increasingly blurred. You will also learn a great deal about the technologies and strategies facilitating this convergence in order to foster a safer, cleaner and more efficient society.

   What’s clear is that if we as an industry are to achieve our goals, our success will depend on an extraordinarily deep level of cooperation between public authorities, standards bodies, road and infrastructure operators and the Tier 1s and OEMs in the automotive community. We can see through various research projects, such as DRIVE C2X, COMeSafety2, eCoMove, COSMO and many others – and not forgetting the USDOT’s model deployment ongoing in Detroit – that the operability and potential benefits of cooperative systems are being fully explored, tested and potentially readied for deployment in the latter half of this decade.

   But as I hear from many of you at our Intertraffic events in Amsterdam, Istanbul, China and India, cooperation and collaboration is key for business, too. In the past, when trying to successfully land a pitch, a tender simply consisted of tangible and often low-tech products. Now, though, the demand centres around high-tech solutions incorporating components from a multitude of disciplines and markets needing to cooperate to provide a functioning solution (ICT, automotive, energy, etc.) – evidenced in some of the previously mentioned projects. Aside from that, cooperation – sometimes even with a direct competitor – is necessary in order to generate a proposition unique and compelling enough to create a winning offer. All too often, though, we see that within consortia competing for a large project, conflicts and distrust about the business case arise in the latter stages. Moreover, consortia are often not fully up-to-speed about the actual and long-term needs and demands of governments – and as a result neither the proposition nor the consortia meet the requested quality. More cooperation and collaboration needed, I wager..

   For RAI/Intertraffic, our main objective is to bring supply and demand together in such a way that the correct consortia and propositions can be conceived and both industry as well as science can find each other through our truly multimedia offerings. Hence, in our upcoming events the Intertraffic brand will make top-quality matchmaking tools available – our print medium Intertraffic World and our .com platform, for example. In spring 2013, our online portal will see a relaunch and will incorporate more information as well as some exciting interactive possibilities. Our magazine, Intertraffic World, will develop an increasing focus on cooperation and solutions, and in this respect a brand-new edition will be published prior to our Intertraffic Istanbul event (to be held from 29-31 May 2013).

   Ultimately – and overwhelmingly – Intertraffic will do more and more to make solutions and cooperation understandable and visible – through live demonstrations at our events, showcase editorials in our magazines and marketplace modules on our .com platform. For you, though, the challenge is to create similar cooperations. Daring to share will bring results. Talk about the business case at an early stage and share your concerns. You will find that your biggest competitors will become friends and partners for life. And, as ever, we are at your service and hope that you enjoy what you read!

Best regards,
Erik W. Dijkshoorn
Intertraffic Worldwide Events